Magnetic Petrophysics of the Vulcan Iron Formation (Michigan, USA)

A detailed investigation of magnetic properties of the iron-bearing Traders and Curry members of the ~1.88 Ga Vulcan Iron Formation (Michigan’s eastern Upper Peninsula) was conducted using natural remanent magnetization, low-field magnetic susceptibility, anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility, thermomagnetic and magnetic hysteresis, and first-order reversal curve analyses. A set of samples were also investigated using electron scanning microscopy and energy dispersive spectrometry. Contrary to previously accepted views, our results indicate that the Traders and Curry members have substantially different properties. The older Traders member is a typical banded iron formation characterized by a higher relative amount of magnetite and stronger magnetic susceptibility. The younger Curry member lacks consistent banding and is characterized by a lower magnetite-to-hematite ratio and weaker magnetic susceptibility. These observations are important for interpretation of future aeromagnetic surveys over the Vulcan Formation and may be useful for understanding the depositional regimes and environmental conditions during the late Paleoproterozoic

The price of empire: Anglo-French rivalry for the Great Lakes fur trades, 1700-1760

As the English and French grappled for North American hegemony in the first half of the eighteenth century, trade with the Indian groups of the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley transcended mere financial calculations and assumed a broader imperial significance. to the native peoples who exchanged their peltry for European manufactured goods, trade was the material manifestation of mutual obligation, political dialogue, and military alliance. If the contest for empire inevitably became a battle for the hearts and minds of potential Indian allies, the spoils of victory were most visibly reckoned in furs and skins.;Yet, despite the outspoken criticism of William J. Eccles, historians of Anglo-French trade rivalry continue to embrace the dubious claims of Cadwallader Colden and other eighteenth-century American imperialists that Canadian traders could not compete on level economic ground with their New York and Pennsylvania counterparts. Allegedly beset with shoddy and costly French goods, a jealous monopoly company that greedily fixed the price of furs and skins, and the levies and restrictions of a militaristic state, Canadians were deemed unable to match the success of their Anglo-American competitors, who conversely reaped the benefits of cheap and superior trade merchandise in a commerce largely free of meddling monopolists and obtrusive officials.;A rigorous cross-border comparison of trade-good costs, transportation charges, and peltry prices deflates this hoary myth of Anglo-American economic superiority. With few exceptions, French-Canadian fur traders supplied goods of equal or better quality at rates of exchange competitive with their New York and Pennsylvania rivals. Purely economic considerations, however, never determined success in the trade. as frustrated Anglo-American officials readily admitted, the cohesive and scrupulously-managed French-Canadian trade network proved aptly suited to winning and maintaining Indian friendship and alliance, while unregulated and unscrupulous American traders perennially poisoned Anglo-Indian relations. The persistence of characteristically Canadian commercial practices and Indian trade loyalties despite the 1760 conquest of New France is, perhaps, the most compelling measure of French-Canadian preeminence in the eighteenth-century contest for North American trade and empire

Athesis: Patriotism and antipathy toward nonbelievers in the United States

Although religion has long been a topic closely tied to politics and academic scholarship, it was not until the 21st Century that academics seriously turned their attention to issues pertaining to the nonbelievers. This inquiry is part of the budding scholarship that focuses on the atheists within the United States, and is the first of my knowledge to specifically explore the patriotic character of antipathy toward these citizens. Patriotic acts, symbolism, and rhetoric are often juxtaposed with references to deism, and attacks leveled at atheists frequently employ patriotic references. I contend these phenomena are not coincidental. On the contrary, I hypothesize that American patriotism propagates dislike for the nonreligious, as deism is so routinely drawn upon during patriotic practices, and nonbelievers are a small, largely unidentifiable minority. Empirical support for this supposition is provided through data from the General Social Survey, yet future research should be aimed at parsing out the effect of patriotism on anti-atheist attitudes - potentially in an experimental setting. Nonetheless, this analysis provides insight into the origin of negative attitudes toward nonreligious Americans, and reveals potential inroads to stifling the most socially accepted animosity toward a religious minority in America

Statistical inference of transmission fidelity of DNA methylation patterns over somatic cell divisions in mammals

We develop Bayesian inference methods for a recently-emerging type of epigenetic data to study the transmission fidelity of DNA methylation patterns over cell divisions. The data consist of parent-daughter double-stranded DNA methylation patterns with each pattern coming from a single cell and represented as an unordered pair of binary strings. The data are technically difficult and time-consuming to collect, putting a premium on an efficient inference method. Our aim is to estimate rates for the maintenance and de novo methylation events that gave rise to the observed patterns, while accounting for measurement error. We model data at multiple sites jointly, thus using whole-strand information, and considerably reduce confounding between parameters. We also adopt a hierarchical structure that allows for variation in rates across sites without an explosion in the effective number of parameters. Our context-specific priors capture the expected stationarity, or near-stationarity, of the stochastic process that generated the data analyzed here. This expected stationarity is shown to greatly increase the precision of the estimation. Applying our model to a data set collected at the human FMR1 locus, we find that measurement errors, generally ignored in similar studies, occur at a nontrivial rate (inappropriate bisulfite conversion error: 1.6$$ with 80$$ CI: 0.9--2.3$$). Accounting for these errors has a substantial impact on estimates of key biological parameters. The estimated average failure of maintenance rate and daughter de novo rate decline from 0.04 to 0.024 and from 0.14 to 0.07, respectively, when errors are accounted for. Our results also provide evidence that de novo events may occur on both parent and daughter strands: the median parent and daughter de novo rates are 0.08 (80$$ CI: 0.04--0.13) and 0.07 (80$$ CI: 0.04--0.11), respectively.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/09-AOAS297 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Dietary Exposure Assessment and Contaminants Biomonitoring in the Dehcho Region, Northwest Territories: Exploring the Relationship Between Mercury Exposure, Omega-3 Fatty Acid Status, and Fish Consumption

Background: Fish are often rich in essential micronutrients including omega-3 fatty acids (FA), and are a cultural and dietary staple in traditional food systems of First Nations communities in the Canadian subarctic. Country foods including fish contribute to improved food security, and promote the cultural sovereignty of First Nations communities. However, these foods are often a primary route of exposure to methylmercury, an environmental contaminant that can pose significant adverse health risks. Objectives: The objectives of this study are to: 1) Determine the concentration of total mercury (Hg) and long chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-3 PUFAs) in the muscle tissue of various wild-caught freshwater fish species harvested from eight lakes in the Dehcho region, Northwest Territories (NWT); 2) Construct a probabilistic, population-based retrospective dose reconstruction model to assess dietary omega-3 PUFA intake and Hg exposure across several Dehcho First Nations communities; 3) Characterize and quantify sources of mercury and omega-3 PUFA exposure from country food consumption, and identify key contributors from the diet; and 4) Assess the utility and accuracy of the probabilistic exposure model at estimating population-level profiles of risk and cardioprotective benefit using biomarkers for omega-3 PUFAs in blood plasma and Hg in hair. Methods: Samples from eight freshwater fish species [Burbot (Lota lota; also known as Loche or Mariah), Cisco (Coregonus artedi; also known as Herring), Lake Trout (Salvelinus namaycush), Lake Whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis), Longnose Sucker (Catostomus catostomus), Northern Pike (Esox lucius; known locally as Jackfish), Walleye (Sander vitreus; also known as Pickerel) and White Sucker (Catastomus commersoni)] were harvested from eight lakes of the Dehcho (including Ekali, Trout, Sanguez, Tathlina, McGill, Gargan, Mustard, and Kakisa Lakes) in August of 2013, 2014, and 2015. Omega-3 PUFA levels in fish tissue were determined by a lipid extraction on pulverized, homogenized fish tissue and quantified using a gas chromatograph with a flame ionization detector, and freeze-dried, homogenized fish muscle tissue samples were analyzed and quantified for total Hg using a Direct Mercury Analyzer. Fish mercury and fatty acid profiles were paired with primary species-specific country food consumption data collected during the Contaminants Biomonitoring Study in the Northwest Territories Mackenzie Valley using a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). A retrospective probabilistic dose reconstruction model was developed using Oracle Crystal Ball™ advanced risk modeling software, to simultaneously characterize intake of methylmercury (MeHg) and n-3 PUFAs through country food consumption, and to estimate both the population proportion at risk of exceeding the tolerable daily intake for MeHg, and those not meeting adequate intakes for PUFAs. A two-dimensional Monte Carlo analysis was conducted and profiles of exposure to MeHg and n-3 PUFAs were generated. Results from the model output were compared to toxicological and nutritional data from the results of the Contaminant Biomonitoring Study in the Northwest Territories Mackenzie Valley. Results: Mean HgT concentrations within piscivorous fishes (e.g. Northern Pike, Walleye, Burbot and Lake Trout) were up to 7.3 times higher than observed in benthivorous and planktivorous fishes (e.g. Cisco, Lake Whitefish, and Sucker). Further, EPA+DHA concentrations in Lake Trout were up to 4.5 times higher than observed in other piscivorous fish species harvested, including Burbot, Northern Pike, and Walleye. Significant differences were noted for mercury and fatty acid profiles in fish between lakes. Negative correlations were observed between mercury and fatty acids for Burbot, Northern Pike and Walleye. Stratifying by species, mean DHA:HgT ratios for Lake Whitefish and Cisco were up to 8.7-fold higher than in piscivorous fish species including Northern Pike, Walleye and Burbot. As an exception, Lake Trout, demonstrating higher omega-3 PUFAs than other species, had accordingly higher fatty acid:mercury ratios. Based on fatty acid and mercury levels in fish species of the Dehcho, and results from the FFQ, estimates for mercury exposure from fish consumption among the Dehcho population indicated that up to 7% of trials exceeded the pTWI of 3.29 μg/kg/week (0.47 μg/kg/day). In contrast, only 0.5% of respondents within participating Dehcho communities exceeded Health Canada’s recommended guidance value of 6 mg/kg. Mean hair mercury was 0.74 mg/kg, with a geometric mean of 0.38 mg/kg. Generally, only a small proportion of trial values exceeded Dietary Reference Intakes for fatty acid subgroups DHA, EPA+DHA, and total omega-3 PUFAs. Similarly, the Omega-3 Index of participants indicated levels of EPA+DHA that fell within the category associated with very low cardioprotective benefits. Sensitivity analyses indicated that input variables corresponding to Lake Whitefish were strong drivers of fatty acid intake across all fatty acid subgroups, while the proportion of the population consuming Northern Pike and Walleye were primary drivers of exposure to methylmercury intake. Conclusion: Probabilistic models provide an important lens for characterizing the risks and benefits from country food consumption in First Nations communities of the Dehcho region. Future studies in probabilistic human health risk assessment will incorporate a component to the model that characterizes risk not only within the general population, but in demographics most vulnerable to the risks associated with mercury exposure, including young children, women of childbearing age, and pregnant women. Any consumption notices and advisories that outline recommendations to modify country food use must consider the multitude of sociocultural, nutritional and spiritual benefits of these foods in subarctic Indigenous populations

Evidence for Misaligned Disks in the T Tauri Triple System: 10 um Super-Resolution with MMTAO and Markov Chains

Although T Tauri is one of the most studied young objects in astronomy, the nature of its circumstellar environment remains elusive due, in part, to the small angular separation of its three components (North-South and South a-b are separated by 0.68" and 0.12" respectively). Taking advantage of incredibly stable, high Strehl, PSFs obtained with Mid-IR adaptive optics at the 6.5 meter MMT, we are able to resolve the system on and off the 10um silicate dust feature (8.7um, 10.55um, and 11.86um; 10% bandwidth), and broad N. At these wavelengths, South a-b are separated by only ~0.3 lambda/D. This paper describes a robust Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique to separate all three components astrometrically and photometrically, for the first time, in the mid-IR. Our results show that the silicate feature previously observed in the unresolved T Tau South binary is dominated by T Tau Sa's absorption, while Sb does not appear to have a significant feature. This suggests that a large circumbinary disk around Sa-Sb is not likely the primary source of cool dust in our line-of-sight, and that T Tau Sa is enshrouded by a nearly edge-on circumstellar disk. Surprisingly, T Tau Sb does not appear to have a similarly oriented disk.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, accepted to Ap

InnateDB: systems biology of innate immunity and beyond—recent updates and continuing curation

peer-reviewedInnateDB (http://www.innatedb.com) is an integrated analysis platform that has been specifically designed to facilitate systems-level analyses of mammalian innate immunity networks, pathways and genes. In this article, we provide details of recent updates and improvements to the database. InnateDB now contains >196 000 human, mouse and bovine experimentally validated molecular interactions and 3000 pathway annotations of relevance to all mammalian cellular systems (i.e. not just immune relevant pathways and interactions). In addition, the InnateDB team has, to date, manually curated in excess of 18 000 molecular interactions of relevance to innate immunity, providing unprecedented insight into innate immunity networks, pathways and their component molecules. More recently, InnateDB has also initiated the curation of allergy- and asthma-related interactions. Furthermore, we report a range of improvements to our integrated bioinformatics solutions including web service access to InnateDB interaction data using Proteomics Standards Initiative Common Query Interface, enhanced Gene Ontology analysis for innate immunity, and the availability of new network visualizations tools. Finally, the recent integration of bovine data makes InnateDB the first integrated network analysis platform for this agriculturally important model organism.This work was supported by Genome BC through the Pathogenomics of Innate Immunity (PI2) project and by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research under the Grand Challenges in Global Health Research Initiative [Grand Challenges ID: 419]. Further funding was also provided by AllerGen grants 12ASI1 and 12B&B2. D.J.L. was funded in part during this project by a postdoctoral trainee award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR). F.S.L.B. is a MSFHR Senior Scholar and R.E.W.H. holds a Canada Research Chair (CRC). Funding to enable bovine systems biology in InnateDB is provided by Teagasc [RMIS6018] and the Teagasc Walsh Fellowship scheme. IMEx is funded by the European Commission under the PSIMEx project [contract number FP7-HEALTH-2007-223411]. Funding for open access charge: Teagasc [RMIS6018]